Math Problem of the Week - Middle School - Oct. 10, 2021 to Oct. 16, 2021

Middle School: 

Question: Pedro is running for class president. Right now, one out of every twelve of the students in Pedro's class plan to vote for him. He has one opponent and give weeks to campaign. If there are 144 students in his class, then how many more students does he need to convince to vote for him in order to win the election?

Answer: 61 more votes

Solution: Pedro has one opponent, so he needs more than half of the students to vote for him in order to win. He already has one-twelfth of the votes, so five-twelfths more would bring him up to half, and one more than that would win him the election. So, since five-twelfths of 144 is 60, he would need 60+1=61 more votes to win.